Homer made up a lot of stuff, mostly because he worked from unreliable sources.
Odysseus’ journey home, from the smoking ruins of Troy to Ithaca, did indeed last ten years. Or seventeen, depending on how you count it. See, if you just count from the time he left Troy to the time he arrived in Ithaca, it was ten years. But if you count the time as Odysseus experienced it, it’s seventeen years, because what Homer doesn’t mention is that Poseidon wasn’t the only god Odysseus managed to piss off.
Odysseus counselled the Argives to slaughter Hector’s young son, so that the child could not grow up to avenge his father and his city. This greatly angered Khronos, the god of time and destiny, who had written out the life of that young boy in advance and who greatly resented Odysseus for using free will to avert what would have become known as the Second Trojan War. Khronos was extremely irritated, but decided not to intervene on the course of Odysseus’ life.
When Odysseus set out from Troy, after he met up with the Lotus Eaters and the one-eyed giant Polyphemus, he stayed briefly with Aeolus, the man gifted with the power to control the winds, and left with a bag of wind that would blow him anywhere except home. Poseidon would not stop complaining about how this annoying mortal was thwarting all the challenges put before him, and Khronos explained to his fellow god that – if Poseidon owed him a favour – he might be able to help. Odysseus was destined to return home, ten years after the end of the Trojan War, and Khronos wanted to be sure that happened…
And so, Odysseus told the poets and storytellers that his crew stole the bag and blew his fleet off course. But that never happened. What happened was this: Khronos transported Odysseus’ entire fleet to a watery planet of carnivorous aliens called the Laestri. Odysseus immediately understood that they were in a different sea (by the stars, you see), and his crews insisted on putting in at port as soon as possible. He ordered his crew to hang back, which was a good idea because the Laestri weren’t particularly picky about what they ate and they devoured the rest of the fleet pretty quickly, seeing as how they were a starfaring race with all the technological prowess that implies.
But this wasn’t any regular old boat captain marooned on an alien world – this was Odysseus, one of the most cunning and wily men to ever live in any time period. He snuck aboard land, hid in ventilation ducts, and taught himself Laestrian over about three weeks. He didn’t understand all the technical specifics, of course, but he found out where the Laestrians kept their theoretical physics experiment installation was easily enough when he figured out the words for “time” and “travel.” (It never occurred to him that he wasn’t on Earth; he figured it was a far future where the Lamia had conquered the world.) As he sailed his remaining ship to that point, Khronos appeared and transported it to another strange sea on another world.
And so it went; whenever Odysseus got to a point where it seemed likely that he would thwart Khronos’ wiles, the God of Time would send him elsewhere. And it was always possible that Odysseus could get home from where he was, because Khronos has his own set of rules, and one of them is that he likes things to go a Certain Way. It just never happened, because Khronos wanted to punish Odysseus for his insolence – and, ultimately, for possessing free will. Khronos was determined to make sure that Odysseus would only arrive at Ithaca when he wanted Odysseus to arrive there. Odysseus’ crew are all long since dead; he sails his ship alone, with a thousand stolen technologies he only partially understands (but partially is enough).
But Khronos made one mistake. One time, to really, really get under Odysseus’ skin, he transported Odysseus to Ithaca – thirty years after he made it there, so that Odysseus could arrive to visit Penelope’s grave. And Odysseus saw it, and Khronos gloated at his captive’s pain, then turned his attentions elsewhere –
– and Odysseus was waiting for just that moment. Not the Odysseus weeping before his wife’s grave. The other Odysseus, the one who had already made it home after all the torments of a seventeen year journey, the one who had lived with his beloved Penelope another twenty-seven years before her passing. The older Odysseus had been waiting decades for this (and lying to anybody who would listen about Circe and Calypso and the Sirens and all the other hot women he totally could have bagged if he wanted to, but he didn’t because he loved his lady), because he already knew it would happen – and he told his younger self how to get home.
And now – a couple of dozen or hundred pit-stops later – Odysseus arrives in the modern day. (Somewhere off Cape Horn, actually.) He knows exactly what to do. He makes a beeline for New York City, where the Sorcerer Supreme makes his abode. Because only Dr. Strange can end his journey, and send him back to Ancient Greece where he belongs, for once and for all. He needs the really good magic to get home.
Top comment: I like the idea that Odysseus is still pulling the Trojan Horse bit. Like, he’s been to countless exotic worlds but they’ve pretty much all bought it so he thinks it’s like the be-all end-all infiltration tactic.
Especially if he has time to go on a couple adventures with Strange before he leaves.
“How shall we effect entry into Doom’s castle? It’s magically warded and patrolled by robots with killsaws for hands and murderguns for eyes!”
“Let’s build a giant wooden -”
“No.”
Double points when Strange realizes that Doom would absolutely not turn down a giant wooden statue of himself. — Five Eyes
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I will forgive you for retconning one of my all time favorite childhood stories because, at this point, I figure I trust you. :-p
Odysseus: The original Man With The Plan. Honestly, I think he’d be a better choice as a recurring Marvel character than Herc or Ares, as sort of a mythological cross between MacGyver and Captain Kirk.
Odysseus: The Batman of ancient times.
I guess that would make Achilles or Hercules the Superman.
BSD don’t forget James Bond, at least the ladies man part. Speaking of which MGK I will NOT let you change Odysseus way with the sorcerers, the man was a stud (and it’s not cheatng if you’re a battle worn king who picks fights with the gods just ’cause, wins wars with giant wooden toys and goes to Athena for counsel, believe me I checked). Seriously, he was whay internet nerds want Chuck Norris to be, only Greek, Pegan and much, much smarter
Al, that’s part of why mentioned JTK.
“He needs the really good magic to get home.”
Odysseus is jonesin for the good magic that only Stephen Strange can supply. Dr. Strange, your #1 stop for when you need that magical fix.
Wait -weren’t the Sirens giant flesh-eating birds first, and vaguely attractive women second? You’d kind of have to tie them down before you could do anything to them.
I get the feeling that somewhere, Dan Simmmons has just read this, smacked himself in the forehead and shouted, “Fuck! This is the story I should have written!”
Coincidentally, Warner Brother’s just won a bidding war to produce an Odysseus movie set just after he gets back to Ithaca. http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/04/27/warner-bros-wins-jonathan-liebesmans-odysseus-300-meets-taken/#more-26183
See, Star Trek was never big down here in Argentina, so the Kirk reference went right over my head. But I concede. As long as ol’ Odie gets some, I don’t care who we compare him to
As long as Strange gets some help from the Lion of Olympus then I’m good. I mean Herc’s never been written better then now and to see him and Strange help his old buddy Odysseus? Gold.
I think I just Geeked all over my keyboard…
Dammit…
At the very least Marvel should let you write this version of the Odyssey as a miniseries. This must somehow happen.
At the very least Marvel should let you write this version of the Odyssey as a miniseries. This must somehow happen.
Why Marvel? They got some copyright on the Odyssey story now?
As far as I know, there is nothing to prevent anyone from writing and publishing a new version of the Odysseus story. Dr Strange couldn’t appear (at least not under that name) but one needn’t assume the only outlet for stories is Marvel or DC.
While I like the idea, it works better as a “Lost Tales of Odysseus” novel than as an arc in Dr. Strange.
I’m vaguely surprised nobody’s mentioned Ulysses 31 yet.
They were the hot chicks first. Then someone decided to read “Siren” while looking at a picture of a “Harpy / Fury” in his My First Greek Mythology Coloring Book, and now we reap questions like this as punishment for our failures.
I think Odysseus does run into the Furies at some point, torturing Aegisthus for killing his own mother. But the Fury is the half-woman, half bird sent to harass you with whips and talons for eternity. The Sirens are the beautiful singers perched atop a rocky cliff that invite sailors to their doom.
I love you.
I want to see this.
With Dean Stockwell as Alcinous, King of the Phaeacians.
The only issue here is you’d probably need a new name for Khronos… wasn’t that the leader of the Titans who fathered the Olympians?
“With Dean Stockwell as Alcinous, King of the Phaeacians.”
Oops. Should’ve made it clearer that I was comparing the idea to Quantum Leap, hence Dean Stockwell.
Rawrasaur: I believe so, but I also believe that Zeus kind of forgave his father and didn’t imprison him like the other Titans. I definitely know that he was the Greek god of time, even during Zeus’ reign.
Could you also include a Doctor Who reference?
I was thinking:
Khronos: “It’s that meddling Doctor again!”
Minion: “Who?”
Khronos: “No, the other one. Strange.”
Yes I know it’s be done to death. That’s half the reason you have to use it, instant recognition.
Rawrasaur: Ok, we’re both way off.
From Wikipedia: “In Greek mythology, Chronos (Ancient Greek: Χρόνος) in pre-Socratic philosophical works is said to be the personification of time. His name actually means “days” and is alternatively spelled Khronos (transliteration of the Greek) or Chronus (Latin version). Not to be confused with Cronus, a Titan.”
I’ve been an Odysseus fanboy for three-quarters of my life, a Marvel fanboy for half of it.
And today, I had my first geekgasm. Thank you, MGK, and sorry for over-sharing like that.
“Khronos’ archenemy: Odysseus! (And also Doctor Who.)” That’s pretty awesome.
And do the Sirens eat the sailors they wreck, or do they just not care about the sailors crashing?
Why to I have this mental image of Creaky signing for the delivery of a giant wooden horse while Strange is out?
Liking it.
This is a very interesting idea, though I worry that it is a stretch to make Odysseus a technical genius; his strength, as you suggest, is craftiness, not scientific aptitude.
You could possibly justify his ability to understand alien technology by having Athena assist Odysseus in the role of his patron deity. If powerful magical entities can give magical powers to their client magicians, why can’t a goddess of wisdom occasionally dispense some critical know-how to her follower — or introduce Odysseus to an alien ally with the know-how (allies would be even better, allowing Odysseus arrive in New York in a boat filled with redshirt aliens ready to die dramatically in the inevitable Odyssey-like magical adventures that must ensue).
In any event it would be interesting to see Odysseus meet up with the Athena of the modern Marvel universe. In the classic story Odysseus seems to be Athena’s favorite mortal — what does Athena think of him now?
So he shows up at Strange’s door, and asks Strange to send him home. Strange says “Okay” and just poofs him back home?
Shortest story arc yet.
Unless you’re planning on him showing up when Strange is fighting Dormammu. Then we can have Odysseus take on Dormammu! Or the 17th Wong… or Catholic Strange… or Fin Fang Fear… etc.
To Beacon:
I like the idea that Odysseus is still pulling the Trojan Horse bit. Like, he’s been to countless exotic worlds but they’ve pretty much all bought it so he thinks it’s like the be-all end-all infiltration tactic.
Especially if he has time to go on a couple adventures with Strange before he leaves.
“How shall we effect entry into Doom’s castle? It’s magically warded and patrolled by robots with killsaws for hands and murderguns for eyes!”
“Let’s build a giant wooden -”
“No.”
Double points when Strange realizes that Doom would absolutely not turn down a giant wooden statue of himself.
Unrelated to all the actual Odysseus stuff: MGK sure loves him some Pendulum, judging by the post title.
At least tart it up, let it be a SHINY statue of Doom.
Wait, wait, wait Zifnab. I think perhaps you may have gotten it wrong. I can distinctly recall my teacher in AS Classical literature two years ago clearly saying that the earliest portrayals of Sirens were Birds with the heads and limbs of beautiful women – a visual later played upon in the “New Traveller’s Almanac” feature of the second volume of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
As far as I recall the Furies, some of the time they were meant to be large dog-like creatures with wings – bird or bat – and snakes for manes, and some of the time they were loathsome, unattractive women who retained the snake-manes.
People, Odysseus will obvious make the Trojan My Little Pony for Doom.
How amused will Odey be when he discovers what we call Trojans in modern times?
(I’m totally taking all credit for the nickname Odey which must be a Creaky given title.)
I would also like to mention Sean Bean as Odysseus? Sold!
I hope you’ll make suer the artist bases Oddy on Sean Bean.
If Odds-ball is the kind to go around making up stories of all the super-women he could have slept with, then he should find New York fantastically inspiring. She-Hulk, of course, is aghast to discover that a description of her performance in bed has been added to canon.
It varies by myth. Sometimes the Sirens are actually just funny shaped tentacles of a ship eating monster, sometimes there’s a monster that lives in a cave below the Sirens that eats people. But most of the stories I’ve read just have the Sirens up on the cliff pointing and laughing at the stupid sailors.
Okay, just to be clear, the made-up parts of Odysseus’s stories? Are there for the comfort and happiness of Penelope, who he genuinely loves. He figures she’d rather have her husband go down in history as the dude who nailed Calypso than as the dude who nailed Calypso and all three of her sisters (first consecutively, then concurrently).
Oh yeah, and what I’m getting from MGK’s description is not that he’s a technical genius but that he’s pragmatic and adaptable. You find a magic lump of metal that shoots fire when you squeeze it in the right way, you don’t waste time worrying about how they packed so much naptha into so small a tube, you just get on with frying some aliens.
And finally, he didn’t make anything up about She-Hulk. Although she eventually gave him two full chapters in her autobiography.
For the most part, I haven’t been feeling the ‘Doctor Strange’ reasons the way that I was feeling the ‘Legion of Super-Heroes’ reasons. But this?
I’m feeling this.
Lister Sage: And now I want to see Doctor Who enter into the MU. Squirrel Girl would make an excellent companion.
sorry but this all sounds like a bad fanflick too me.
I would read this book, watch the movie, play the videogame, whatever. Odysseus is awesome. This is awesome. He’s the first adventurer. Clever, eternally wandering.
Not to be too wanky about it but Dante and Tennyson’s evocations of Odysseus’ fate kick ass
but he also works as comic book character
It’s like Ulysses 31….minus No-No.
This idea needs more No-No!
Actually, the good Doctor is in MU continuity.
He had a series, which had a cameo from a minor transformers character (yes?), who then moved into the main MU.
In other words, the Doctor and Godzilla are both characters in Marvel continuity. Combine that with JLA vs. Avengers, and we have the best crossover ever.
And that’s even with Marvel Vs. Capcom non canon.
“People, Odysseus will obvious make the Trojan My Little Pony for Doom.”
Hank Pym crossover.
HANK PYM CROSSOVER
seriously…these reasons just get better and better. I really want to see dr. Strange written like this. You know what needs to be done to this comic. is there anything we as readers could realistically do to make this happen? petitions or letters to marvel or something? we could use to power of the interwebs to make awesome things happen.
I hope you don’t mind some criticism here, MGK.
The thing that strikes me about most of your ideas is that they’re deep, rich, well-thought-out concepts that strike me as staggeringly difficult or awkward to thoroughly explain in an actual comic book, unless you’re going to devote half of it to backstory. How you would manage to fit in the entire rigmarole with Khronos and Poseidon and Hector’s kid and the Second Trojan War before you get to the Lamia and “time” and “travel” and the ensuing journeys and the trip to the future and the older Odysseus and FINALLY Cape Horn and meeting Dr. Strange before you get finally answering the question, “well, then what?” (since the series is called DR. STRANGE and not ODYSSEUS.
I’m just curious, have you ever worked with an artist on telling a story?
Somewhere there is a joke waiting to be made w/ Odysseus seeing a box of Trojans…
Yeah, I’m not feeling the backstory 100% either. It’s neat… but this seems more like I Should Write Odysseus than ISW Dr. Strange. It just doesn’t seem like there’s much for Strange to do: just send Odysseus home (and get Kronos to knock it off?). I’m way interested in Odysseus’ various time adventures and space shenanigans though. He’s totally Lilandra’s great-great-great-grandfather.
Also, and this is a very nitpicky thing you don’t have to worry about, shouldn’t Clotho, Lathesis, and Atropos have a say in whether Hector’s kid gets ganked?
One problem I do potentially see is, well- Odysseus told a bunch of guys to go and kill a kid. That’s fine and dandy in Greek mythology, but I’m not sure why a modern superhero would necessarily be eager to team up with him.
Evan Waters,
In actual Norse mythology Thor is Odin’s brother, not his son. A little creative rewriting is not always unheard of when translating mythology to comic canon.
And if someone doesn’t know who Odysseus’ is, why should they care about this arc? I’m sure those people are few and far between, but still.
To Five Eyes: Y’know the whole basis of my initial joke is that Creaky wouldn’t know better. Considering how many alien worlds MGK’s Odysseus has been on, it stands to reason that most of his opponents over the past 17 years haven’t known any better either. I could totally see him becoming convinced that the horse thing is the greatest infiltration tactic ever.
To Snap Wilson and HitTheTargets: Not every Dr Strange story needs to be centered around something that’s already part of his little corner of the MU. The whole “why MGK should write Dr Strange” thing seems as much a vehicle for fantasy and horror stories that MGK wants to tell as the LoSH thing was for science fiction.
To HitTheTargets and Snap Wilson:
I could easily see the basics of this get covered in half an issue, an issue tops, followed by Oddysseus joining the supporting cast for a while until Strange works out how to get him home, with some of Oddysseus’ past trips being relevant to whatever other stories are being told.
Basically this idea is a fantastic example of the toybox rule that MGK mentioned in I Should Write the Legion, as it could give other writers a ton of things to play with.
Admittedly, I pretty much want to see an I Should Write Odysseus series now, as this is my favourite idea so far.
Bret: The original Death’s Head was the Transformers character the Doctor encountered. He went from hunting Transformers in the TF UK series. Shrunk by the Doctor with the Master’s stolen TCE weapon. To showing up in various Marvel US comics. Transformers is technically MU canon as well. Both with their original series and the New Avengers/Transformers crossover a year or so ago.
I know.
Hence, the “Yes?”
Heck, I have an issue of Fantastic Four with the guy. (It’s a good one, by the way.)
Seconding the “fuck yeah Pendulum”, incidentally.
I thought Chronos and the other titans were banished by Zeus and the olympians. I might be weong
Bret: Ah, I thought it was “I’m not sure, which is why I’m adding a question mark” type things. So I figured I’d confirm your “suspsions”.
saca: Different Cronos. There’s a Titan Cronos and a God Khronos. I made the same mistake.
Zenrage: In actual Norse mythology Thor is Odin’s brother, not his son. A little creative rewriting is not always unheard of when translating mythology to comic canon.
Being Scandinavian, I’ve been subjected to Norse mythology on a weekly basis since I was ten years old, and I’ve never heard of Thor being anything other than Odin’s son. Loki on the other hand is variously described as Thor’s half-brother, Odin’s adoptive son and Odin’s blood brother. Maybe you mixed something up there?
Neil Gaiman once referenced Loki as being ‘a giant who went to live with the gods’. Is it possible that he was just some malevolent force which no-one could define?
Admittedly, not cannon, but Wiki disagrees with you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor#Family
I’m thinking Loki is so tricksy he spun his writers around and made them give him several conflicting backstories so no one would know for sure. Which I guess puts him ahead of every other trickster god. >_>
Not to throw water on a fire but who is this a Dr. Strange story? Would you spend an issue or two on Ulysses’ back story to get into Doc Strange or just throw him in and catch up later?
This works better as a Ulysses in modern day NY story than a Dr. Strange pitch.
Odey is not to be confused with Oedi, a play parodying Oedipus.
I think you’re worrying too much about the exposition. These aren’t really single story pitches, but more like sections of the story bible. They are there to lay groundwork and ensure consistency. Most of this wont come into the scripting unless a specific storyline requires it. Odysseus isn’t going to show up at Strange’s door and spend ten pages detailing his history. He’s going to tell the Cliff Notes version and ask for help. Two issues later, when they run into Laestri on Earth, he’ll fill that in in a handful of panels.
Oh, and the surviving original Norse eddas are contradictory in any number of ways. Their religion never got organized enough for everyone to get together and vote for which version was canon, like the Catholics did.
“Loki is so tricksy he spun his writers around and made them give him several conflicting backstories so no one would know for sure. Which I guess puts him ahead of every other trickster god”
… except the Joker.